To Mend this Shattered World
by TheTintedWindow
Summary: Dramione fic. With no room left in Azkaban, captured deatheaters are being sold to upstanding families for "rehabilitation". Hermione wants to bring the divided wizarding community together and welcome some of the less harmful deatheaters back into society. So she buys the infamous Draco Malfoy and tries to convince him to help her mend this shattered world.
1. Chapter 1

Authors notes:

I do not own Harry Potter. All these characters belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling.

Did you see how I worked the title into the summary? Pretty cheesy right?

The idea behind this story is it's set after the final battle. But the deatheaters don't just decide, "Huh, Voldemorts dead, looks like we lost. Time to throw away all those ideals we seemed to care about so much and trust that the ministry will be fair and just in their punishment". No, they keep fighting. And tension has now built on both sides. This chapter just explains that.

This is Dramione and this is no way a healthy relationship. You've been warned.

Anyway this is my first attempt at fan fiction, and I welcome any constructive thoughts, criticism or compliments. Thanks in advance for reading!

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The scene in the field was chaos. What had been a quiet, green farm field this morning was charred black from fire and dyed red with blood. The aurors had received intelligence early in the morning of a potential safe house for deatheaters and Ginny, Hermione, Fred and George had gone to investigate immediately. However the moment they apparated in, they were ambushed by a small army of deatheaters. Ginny apparated back to headquarters immediately to find reinforcements while the rest defended their position. Fred and George were firing large and loud curses in all directions while circling around Hermione, who was knelt on the ground quietly chanting. "We can't hold them back much longer!" Fred shouted over fighting. Hermione didn't respond, still focused on her chant. "Hermione if you're doing this, do it know!" George yelled more desperately. Finally Hermione slowly stood, still chanting. Suddenly she swung her arm over her head and brought her wand down to the ground in one graceful movement, yelling " _conteram aperta terrae!_ ". A large bang was heard and the ground cracked all over the field and then began to shatter like ice on a frozen lake. The three aurors were safe in the centre. Death eaters fell into the crevices but many managed to hold their ground or grab the edge of the dirt before falling. Looking at the damage, Hermione's spell had taken out at least half of the deatheaters, but there were still too many. The three aurors looked around and watched their enemies get back to their feet, and looked nervously at one another. "There's still at least ten of them." Fred said quietly. "We can't keep this up." Said George. Just then, the cavalry arrived. Ginny and four more aurors apparated to the field. The battle resumed, and this time the aurors were on the offensive.

In the middle of the chaos, Hermione looked to the small windmill up the field and saw Lucius Malfoy, the most wanted man in the wizarding world limping into the building. Before she could think about finding someone to come with her, she took off after him. When she approached the mill, all was quiet. She raised her wand and slowly entered. It was one large room, basic wooden floors with a few pieces of equipment. The dust shimmering in the setting sunlight. There was no sign of Lucius Malfoy. She circled the room looking for how he could have escaped. When she walked to the far side of the room she suddenly felt the tingle of magic. She whipped around, wand read and saw Lucius Malfoy standing calmly only three feet away, wand at his side. They stood in silence for a moment. Close up, he looked just as intimidating as she remembered. Finally regaining her composure she raised her wand and cast a _petrificus totalis_ curse, Lucius didn't flinch because he knew the curse wouldn't reach him. Only two feet in front of Hermione the curse hit a barrier. She realized she was trapped and began to panic. "This is definitely not good, why did I have to go after him myself?" she thought. But she also wondered why he hadn't killed her yet. "No, he probably wants to capture me, to torture and make an example of me" she said again internally. After a tense silence Lucius finally spoke "Miss Granger, I require your assistance."

Soon the battle was over. Ginny, whose main role was as a healer, ran over to Hermione who was limping back from the windmill, her leg bleeding quite badly. "I saw you go after Malfoy on your own, what on earth were you thinking? Let me see you leg!" Ginny practically screamed. "I went after him, he hit me with this curse and I couldn't walk, he got away" she replied. "You're lucky you weren't killed! You shouldn't have gone after him alone." Ginny chastised as she patched up Hermione's leg. "Going after him myself was the right call" Hermione simply stated. With her leg healed enough to walk on, she apparated back to headquarters.

When Hermione arrived, Ron and Harry bent over the large oak table in the middle of the main room, staring intently at the intelligence splayed haphazardly around the table. They took no notice of her entrance. When she came closer she could tell they were discussing what the next steps should be. Hermione was frustrated but unsurprised that they had not waited for her to return to discuss their plans. Over the years Hermione had become alienated from her two best friends.

 _Previously..._

The war had dragged on for five years since the final battle where Voldemort was defeated. The deatheaters were still many in number and unwilling to give up on their pureblood superiority. Feeling that they still had a chance to take over the ministry the war continued. Hermione and many of her classmates had eventually become aurors to fight against the growing army of deatheaters. However the years of war and the atrocities they had witnessed, had made many people bitter. Especially Ron and Harry. Deatheaters were already known for their cruelty but throughout the war some reached new levels of depravity. Members of the order captured were often tortured and killed, but some deatheaters grew tired of this repetitive and quick end and began to take some of prisoners as personal slaves. Often branding their victims like cattle so they would have a lasting scar to remind them of who was superior. Putting them under the imperious curse and forcing them to work, serve and even "entertain" at parties. Few survived this hell, those that returned home were never really themselves again. The ministry would use the stories from these survivors to justify extreme measures taken to capture and kill any remaining deatheaters and their sympathizers. Harry used his fame and became very vocal on this issue, saying that he felt that everyone associated with the deatheaters in anyway should be removed from society. However, Hermione felt their stance was too black and white. For example, many of their Slytherin classmates were only following their parents and were never really involved with deatheater activities. They could easily be rehabilitated into society if they just had the opportunity to return safely.

However, the wizarding community, in their outrage after the battle agreed with the boy who lived and his hardline stance. Azkaban was severely damaged throughout the war and with all the arrests was quickly filled. The ministry now desperate for money to rebuild, came up with a plan to solve both the issue of space in Azkaban and the dwindling galleons in the ministry vaults. All deatheaters captured in the battle were either sent to Azkaban, or sold to richer families as "servants" without a trial. Servants with no pay and no rights for ten years. After their ten year sentence they could return to society. This also saved them a lot of money in fees for trials in front of the wizengamot. It was sold to the public in a softer manner, as " rehabilitation. The public was told that only responsible families would take these people in and show them how to reintegrate into society. Of course, that is not how the program was used, many people took this as an opportunity to exact revenge on the people that had wronged them. And instead of rehabilitating, they enslaved the former deatheaters and forced them to serve and entertain. Many people felt like this was the perfect karmic solution. As the pureblood deatheaters had felt so high and mighty, to have to kneel to those they felt were beneath them seemed fitting. What Hermione could not understand is how people could not see that by enslaving and torturing these people, that they were now no better than their enemies. She would not wish that fate on her worst enemy.

Not everyone arrested an forced into servitude was actually a deatheater, some were sympathizers or innocent relatives of deatheaters, arrested for their name only. With no trial and no appeal process this drove a larger wedge between the two sides. Feeling that they had no other option, deatheaters that escaped the final battle went into hiding. They remained organized and continued to try to regain a foothold in the ministry to repeal the current laws. However, the orders' intelligence now suggested that the deatheaters had divided into two camps, the older, original deatheaters headed by Lucius Malfoy, and the younger deatheaters, who felt the older generation was too slow and their tactics too timid. The younger deatheaters were the ones to carry out the public attacks while the older group worked on slithering their way back into politics and manipulating workers at the ministry. No one knew exactly who was leading the younger deatheaters, but it was presumed to be none other than Draco Malfoy. He, however, hadn't been seen since the final battle.

Their differences in politics had left such a large rift between Hermione and Harry that it made working with him difficult. Six months ago, both Harry and Hermione were promoted to heads of the auror department. The ministry felt that having two department heads would look better as they were both so young to be put in charge. Hermione and Harry had hoped that this new position would bring them closer again, but it only widened the rift between them. Harry felt that the only way he could effectively wipe out the deatheaters was to distance himself from Hermione and her softer policies. She would always come to meetings with her calming, levelheaded arguments about how to alter his plans to minimize risk, even if it would allow deatheaters to escape. To Harry, none of them deserved to escape. So he began "forgetting" to tell her about planning meetings and their constant fighting created a divide in the aurors, those who supported Harry and those who supported Hermione. The problem of course was that Hermione is smart, and a great strategist. With her plans aurors rarely came back injured, where Harry was willing to risk lives like they were still in the middle of war. Hermione almost always went on the missions with her teams instead of managing from headquarters and because of this had gained the respect of the majority of the department.

The last straw in their friendship was when Harry finally convinced Ron to pick a side. Ron had tried to stay out of Harry and Hermione's fights. Harry was his best friend, and even though him and Hermione had ended their relationship last year he still loved her like a sister. And as much as he wanted to stay out of it, he agreed with Harry, he hated the deatheaters just as much and could not understand how Hermione could show them a shred of compassion after what she had been through. One day they had intelligence suggesting they had the location of the Malfoy's and Harry and Ron felt this was their opportunity to deliver a crippling blow to the deatheaters, Hermione felt it was too dangerous, that there wasn't enough information on what they would be walking into, that aurors could die if they went through with this operation. But Harry wouldn't budge, and finally Ron chose his side. He yelled at her in front of the entire department that the Hermione he knew before this war would never be such a coward and that the deatheaters must have finally convinced her she is nothing but a worthless mud blood. Hearing those words from her best friends, the betrayal of it, was too much and she stormed out of the meeting. This allowed them to go ahead with their plan, putting her other friends in danger. She would never forgive herself for that day. She knew it was dangerous and yet she didn't fight harder to stop Harry and his insane plan. That day, they lost five aurors, and captured no deatheaters. What was worse is that Harry seemed to feel no remorse. He still insisted it was worth the risk to go ahead with the operation, even after seeing the five coffins. He couldn't see beyond his hatred. From then on, she was determined to remove Harry from his position of leadership. He was a loose cannon and she could not allow him to continue putting her coworkers, her friends, in danger.

Hermione now felt very alone without her best friends. Of course she still had Ginny, Luna and Neville. But she missed the days of being the golden trio. She poured all her energy into her work to keep distracted and she came up with policy proposals for alternative plans for the deatheaters; to reintegrate the less radical ones back into society. From interviews with some of the captured deatheaters, she knew that many of the younger ones had really only committed a few small crimes, which they would be happy to pay for fairly. But when given only the choice of Azkaban or slavery, they chose to stay on the run. Hermione goal was simple; to give people the opportunity for a fair trial and to end all slavery. She also determined that the only way to accomplish this goals was to leave the aurors and aim higher. Much higher. However, Harry had also come to this same conclusion. Harry wanted to ensure that the wizarding world remained a safe place for everyone and decided that in order to put in place stricter policies to prevent any group like the deatheaters from returning, he would also need to aim higher. Both Harry and Hermione decided they needed to make a play to become the next minister of magic. When the current minister announced he would be stepping down at the end of the next year, immediately Harry started quietly talking to people about campaigning and rallying support. Hermione remained silent, using her brilliant mind to figure out how she could beat the boy who lived in a public vote.

 _Present day..._

Hermione cleared her throat to make her presence known, finally the the two men looked up at her and she spoke "That intelligence we received from your source Ronald was clearly not reliable. This was not a meeting of a few of the lead death eaters, this was an ambush. What were you think-" but before she could continue, Harry interrupted her "Hermione now is not the time to lecture us, we need to figure out our next move. You failed today, you didn't capture a single death eater! There were over twenty-five of them there, and you couldn't capture a single one? It's like you are working against us. The public is looking to us to keep them safe and every time we bring a death eater to justice people feel safer" "You mean bring a deatheater into indentured servitude." Hermione retorted sarcastically. "Don't start 'Mione" Ron whined. They had had this argument so many times before. Neither one of them cared to mention her limp or ask if she was alright. They knew it was a waste of time to suggest she go home and rest. They continued to bicker while planning their next steps.

The next day Hermione went to the one place she thought she would never go. Many of the stores in knockturn alley had gone out of business and had been boarded up. One store that used to sell dark artifacts had been converted to sell something worse; former deatheaters or at least those accused of being one. When she walked in, the front room looked very cozy with couches, a coffee table and even a very real-looking fake plant, like selling people was almost civilized. A burly man with a bushy beard, wearing a button down shirt half tucked in and blue jeans came out from the back "Welcome!" He said in a thick Scottish accent "what are you looking for today? I have males and females, just got some young ones in last week!" Hermione barely managed to hold back her look of disgust. She felt sick just being here. "I'm looking for a male, can I see what you have?". "Absolutely! Come on back" he responded and lead her through a door to the back room. There were about ten people being kept in large cage on the far wall. Again Hermione had to hold back her fear and disgust. If she was going to pull this off, she needed to be cool and confident. She just kept repeating those word in her head while the man had all the males line up in front of her. He started telling her about their features, which ones seemed to be the strongest or tamest, as if he was selling muggle cars. All the men were wearing old rags with so many holes they barely held together. At this sight, she couldn't help herself, she interrupted his sales pitch saying "Surely there are proper clothes they can wear?". "We aren't wasting anything on these degenerates" he responded gruffly. Hermione knew she had to move on so she pulled out the ring she had charmed the day before. It was a large ruby ring, charmed to glow when it came near an illusion charm. Useful for finding hidden doors, transfigured items or in this case, people in hiding.

She started to her left and as she walked along the line of people the ring didn't respond. She was beginning to worry it wasn't working when she finally saw a faint glow as she approach the second to last man in the line. As she came nearer, it glowed brighter. She couldn't help but smile, even after all she had been through learning a new charm and seeing work was still one of her favourite feelings. Then she focussed on the man in front of her, he had noticed her smiling and was giving her a confused look. He was thin, a foot taller than herself, which was about the height she remembered. And he was the right build, even though he clearly had lost some weight, he still had muscles of a quidditch player. She wondered if they received more than one meal a day here. But his face didn't look anything like she remembered. His hair was brown, and his eyes weren't the piercing blue she was so used to seeing in school when he was taunting her. The nose was all wrong and his lips were too full. Either he was very good at illusions or her detection charm didn't work as well as she thought. "I'd like to talk to this one." She stated turning back to the burly man. "Talk to him? What do you need to do that for? Do you really want him for "talking"" he said slyly. She wanted to shudder at his words. "Confidence. Be confident" she thought. Hermione snapped around and approached the man "I'd like to interview him, not that it's your business but I at least need to know he can follow simple instructions. Something you seem incapable of doing at the moment". The man gaped at her, but after a moment lead them back to the front room with the couches. As Hermione and the man took a seat across from each other, the burly shopkeeper stood in the corner of the room. Hermione looked at the shopkeeper and raised an eyebrow. "I'm not leaving you alone with him ma'am, he could be dangerous." "I have a wand, he does not. Not to mention I'm one of the top aurors in this country. I'll be fine. Leave us for a few minutes." She snapped. "I'll go prepare the sale paperwork then.." he muttered and left the room. She could see that the man in rags smirked at her remark, and it was all the confirmation she needed that she found the man she was looking for.

Again, Hermione reminded herself to remain confident. She needed him to listen to her, trust her and by some miracle, obey her. As soon as the shopkeeper left Hermione turned to the man and with all the smugness she could muster said, "Well you can change your face, but if you're going to pretend to be someone else you should lose that classic Malfoy smirk". Immediately, his face dropped, but he quickly composed himself. He leaned forward and in a low voice said "I don't know what you are talking about. My name is.." but Hermione cut him off and finished "Draco Malfoy."


	2. Chapter 2 - Welcome Home

Authors notes:

I do not own Harry Potter. All these characters belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling.

Please be warned that Hermione isn't very nice to Draco for parts of this Chapter. And things gets "steamy" towards the end (that's a pun, you'll get it later). You have been warned. Thanks in advance for reading!

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It was at that point that Draco figured out that Hermione Granger was too clever to be fooled. He also realized that his time was now limited. If he was sent to Azkaban he would surely be killed by one of the factions of deatheaters. He was tired of running, and for once could not see a way out of this dire situation, so he decided that if this was the end, he would go out with his usual arrogant demeanour. "Fine, you got me. Take me to Azkaban and throw away the key" he said sarcastically and held out his hands as to mimic wearing handcuffs. "I'm not here to arrest you Malfoy." He stopped and looked at her confused. This made Hermione smirk as she could see the gears turning in his head trying to figure out why she could possibly be here. After a few moments he spoke "Well you certainly aren't here to buy me." Hermione just stared back. After a moment he spoke again "you... you can't be serious. Moral high ground, house elf freeing Hermione Granger wants to buy a deatheater slave? Sorry, "servant"" He added sarcastically. He couldn't believe this was happening so he continued his rant "Have you gone off the deep end? Besides, arresting me would most certainly give you enough credit to be put you solely in charge of the aurors over Pot-head. Not to mention, you must remember that I am evil, manipulative and the best wizard in or year, having me in your house would put you in danger!".

There was a pause before Hermione replied simply with "Second best." "What?" "Second best in our year. I beat you and I'm not afraid of you. Are you really that scared to be owned by a mudblood?" It was barely noticeable, but she could have sworn Draco cringed at that last word, which surprised Hermione, as she recalled that being one of his favourite names to call her when they were in school. She chose to move on however, "Look Malfoy." She sighed, leaning forward to make sure she had his full attention for this "I can take you to jail if that's what you want. And yes, that would give me a huge career boost. But I'm aiming a little higher than just running the department. And taming _the_ Draco Malfoy, now that would gain me a different kind of respect. Not to mention I need to own a deatheater to be able to attend some of the high society parties I will need too." "And you expect me to what?" He sneered, the distaste evident on his face. "Bow down to you? Do party tricks? Fetch you drinks? Sleep in your bed? Be your pureblood sex sl—" she cut him off "you're leaving his place today Malfoy and you're either coming home with me, or going to Azkaban. Choose quickly as your jail keeper is coming back.".

Draco finally had no retort, no other options, no better deals to make. He had to decide whether he would sacrifice his pride or potentially his life. While waiting for his "jail keeper to return as she so aptly put it, he finally took a good look at the Hermione. She was no longer the same insufferable bushy-haired girl he remembered from school. He wasn't fooled by her outward appearance of cool confidence, he could see her hands shaking as she held that ruby ring during the line up, how all her movements were so stiff and calculated. No she was still uptight Granger, but something in her was different. Sure she had managed to tame her hair to some extent, and she had grown into a rather stunning woman, but it was her eyes that Draco couldn't stop analyzing. They were harder. The fire he used to see ignite behind those amber orbs when he called her mudblood was no longer there. She seemed harder. This war had been hard on everyone, Draco had seen the changes in many of his old classmates and friends, but her eyes showed that whatever she had endured had really taken its toll. To snuff out the fire in this particular Gryffindor would have taken a lot, he knew and he began to wonder what that could have been that eventually drive her to cast aside her morals and buy him. Actually, he began to wonder how she found him in the first place, but his thoughts were interrupted as the burly man re-entered the room announcing that the paperwork had been prepared and that all she needed to do was sign. She turned back to Malfoy "Well what will it be?".

In the end, Draco decided he still stood a better chance of escaping if he was outside of Azkaban. Granger was smart, but she would have to leave him alone at some point, and she had just promised to bring him to parties where he could speak with potential allies. Allies, which could help him escape. So, he stood and crossed the small space between him and Hermione, and dropped to one knee "I am at your service... Mistress." The last word he had to concentrate to stop from sneering at her. Calling a mudblood mistress was particularly humiliating. Not that he truly believed pure bloods to be superior. If anything, Granger was living proof of that, but it was so engrained in his mind that as a Malfoy he was above everyone else that he wondered if agreeing to this was truly the right choice.

Hermione was shocked. She had done it! She seemed to have pulled it off. She figured he felt that going with her would give him a better chance of escape. Now she just had to figure out what she could give him to gain his cooperation in her plan. She still had that queasy feeling in her stomach as she watched to shop keeping put the leather collar around Draco's neck and cuffs around his wrists. She could see how distressed he was with the process and how he was fighting to stay in control of his emotions and stay still. Even as much as she hated him, she wanted to get him out of this place as quickly as possible.

Hermione quickly apparated them back to her house. It was a classic old townhouse in a suburb of muggle London. They landed on her front step and she rushed him through the door before her neighbours could see them. Neither of them had spoken since the shop. It was already 10:00 pm so as they went inside Hermione quickly got rid of his illusion charms that disguised his look and finally found herself face to face with the Draco Malfoy she remmebered and loathed. She was about to suggest that he go and shower when suddenly Draco tackled her, and her wand fell out of her hand. Apparently, his plan for escape wasn't going to be sly and cunning, he wasn't willing to wait. She fell against her staircase and went for her throat. Even after being half starved for weeks, he was still larger and stronger than her and easily over powered her. He was choking her, and she saw the half mad look in his eyes. Clearly, she wasn't the only one who had lost part of their sanity during this war.

Draco hadn't really thought any of this through, he simply figured he would over power her and run. It was simple, and hopefully effective. So far, his ill thought out plan had worked, he was on top of her, she would soon pass out and he could run. But her lack of resistance, her lack of panic was beginning to worry him. Why wasn't she afraid? Finally, she smirked at him and he knew this was not going to end well. Suddenly an invisible force ripped him from atop Hermione and he was flung against the nearest wall, wrists above his head, held firmly in place by invisible bonds. He quickly realized his plan had failed.

Hermione laid back on the stairs for a few moments catching her breath. Draco had almost managed to choke her out. She had been seeing stars. Once her head was clear she sat up and looked at him. She shook her head and asked him "Really Malfoy? Did you not think that I would have some kind of safety measures put in place?" She looked up at him on the wall, he wasn't making eye contact. Here she was, Hermione Granger with a shirtless Draco Malfoy attached to her wall. This was not something she ever thought she would be dealing with. She sighed and decided to get up and take a few steps into the living. "For Merlins sake Malfoy, I had wanted this evening to be civilized. Oh well, now I at least get to test this." She picked up a rather large looking book. "The manual says that it's set to "mildly unpleasant" by default, would you say that's an accurate description?"

Draco had refused to make eye contact with her, and he definitely had no intention of answering her. She wanted this evening to be civilized? He was in a collar and rags, there was no way that was going to happen. Maybe she had lost her marbles. He remained silent as she asked her question.

Hermione was getting annoyed, she needed him to communicate with her. She needed something to work with so she had to make him say something. "Fine, perhaps it's not actually unpleasant, the next setting is "definitely slightly painful" shall we try that one?" She waited and he still said nothing. "Come on Malfoy, I don't want to do this" She thought to herself. After it became clear he was going to stay silent she finally flicked her hand and wandlessly turned up the setting. She saw him shift uncomfortably, clearly this setting was as described but he was holding it together, he had probably faced much worse. "Well?" She asked. Still, she was met with silence. She wasn't going to keep doing this, this was ridiculous. Out of frustration she sat down on the couch, put her head in her hands and sighed, "Look Malfoy, I just need you to give this a chance. I don't want things to be this way, but I don't have the time or the patience for this. Either say something or stay on that wall all night like this."

Draco's wrists were starting to ache and this setting was definitely slightly painful. Since he didn't like the prospect of being left like this all night he caved and finally spoke, "It's painful."

He spoke. She had won.

"So would you rather have the first setting?" She asked and tilted her head to the side.

"I'd rather be off this wall." He snapped at her.

"that's not what I asked. It's a simple yes or no." She gave him a small smirk.

"fine, yes."

"Great" she said as she turned it back to the first setting.

There was a pause.

"Are you going to let me down now?"

"No."

"No?"

"Not until you ask nicely."

"Are you kidding me?" He asked angrily.

"You attacked me! I wasn't planning on doing anything like this tonight but clearly I need to make it clear to you who's in charge here! So we are doing this!"

He thought about it. And decided he was too tired and hungry to fight with her right now. Especially since she wasn't asking for much. He was lucky she hadn't hexed him into oblivion or just tossed him to Azkaban for what he had just done.

"Fine. Will you let me down. Please." He said shortly.

"Please…?"

"No."

"OK, goodnight Malfoy."

"Argh fine." He paused. "Mistress, will you please let me down." He quickly ground out.

"Sure, no problem Malfoy." She said with a smile, and he suddenly dropped to the floor.

"Pour us both a fire whiskey." She said gesturing towards a decanter at the side of the room. As much as she wanted to she couldn't back down now. He had to understand that he couldn't just act out and attack her like that. She had to get some ground rules established.

Draco slowly got up off the floor and rubbed around his wrists. He couldn't believe she actually wanted him to serve her. This was ridiculous, but it was late and he figured the sooner he played her game the sooner he could get some sleep and regroup in the morning. So we went over the fire whisky and poured them both a glass. He walked over to where she was sitting on the couch and offered her a glass. She just stared back at him and raised an eyebrow. He took a breath and swallowed what tiny amount of pride he had left and went down on one knee and offered her the glass again. This time she took it.

"Thank you Malfoy." They both took a sip. He stayed on one knee, looking intently at his whisky. "Look, this isn't what I wanted to be doing this evening. Do you want to hear what I had planned?" He didn't really respond or look up at her but she decided to let that one go and continue "My plan was to show you the house, let you shower and I would make us some dinner. Then we could get a good nights rest and talk about how this living arrangement is going to work in the morning." He finally looked up at her with a look of surprise. Clearly he had not been expecting her plan to be so civilized. "But since you've wasted so much time with this why don't we get you showered and then we can just eat some leftovers I have in the fridge?" He brightened up a bit at this "But first go get me my wand." His face dropped and he looked confused. He looked from her to the wand on the floor in the hall. "You knocked it out of my hand Malfoy, so go get it."

Draco slowly rose and walked over to the wand. When we reached it, he just stared at it, like he was expecting it to bite him. "This has to be a trap." He thought. He was trying to figure out how this would go wrong when he was pulled from his thoughts by Hermione saying "It's not really a trap, you just have to concentrate!"

"Concentrate on what exactly?"

"Not wanting to hex me."

"What?"

"If the house sense you're going to try to harm me with a wand then guess where you end up."

"The wall?"

"The wall."

"This is ridiculous then, I can't pick it up. How am I really supposed to control those kind of thoughts?"

"Malfoy," she said in a softer tone that before "I need you to be able to do this. It's important. I won't be able to hide you here indefinitely. People are going to find out you're here and when they do I'll have to take you to parties and you have to act appropriately. If you don't I can't protect you. And being able to pick up that wand is part of it. So please just try to concentrate."

He didn't really believe she could have any concern for his well-being. Her soft tone somehow relaxed him a little and he decided to try. She had after all, promised him a shower and food, and all that was standing in his way was this wand. So he finally reached down and picked it up.

Hermione could see his brow furrow with concentration as he slowly walked the wand over to her. He even went down on one knee unprompted before offering it to her so she quickly took it and stood up. "Ok let's get you cleaned up, shall we?" She offered him her hand. He ignored her hand and simply stood. She was a bit offended but decided not to push. Even covered in dirt she figured he probably didn't want to touch a filthy mudblood.

They made their way upstairs and she showed him the main bathroom. As soon as she left him alone he tore off his rags and jumped in the shower. He couldn't wait to feel clean again. Hermione had forgot to bring him clean clothes so she went into what used to be her private office (now a makeshift bedroom for Malfoy) and got him some clean clothes and underwear. She knocked before re-entering the bathroom, but Draco couldn't hear her with his head stuck under the water. "Malfoy?" She called as she approached the shower. Finally he heard her and whipped the curtain back. "Couldn't even wait a few hours to see me naked Granger? I would have thought better of you". Clearly he was feeling better, since he was trying to insult her. She pretended not to notice how the beads of water shimmered over his abs or how he still had amazing muscular definition even if he had lost a lot of weight while in captivity. And she tried not to think about how long it had been since she had seen a naked man, especially one as good looking as him. Instead, she held out the clothes and placed them on the toilet seat cover. Draco felt a bit stupid for his previous outburst and simply said a quick "Thank you" before pulling the curtain back and returning to his shower.

But Hermione noticed something she couldn't ignore. She marched right up to the shower "What are you doing now Granger?" "Come here." She said as she crooked her finger at him. "You can't get the dirt out from under that collar." After a moment, he reluctantly bent is head towards her. As she unlatched the collar she said, "You still can't hurt me if you're wearing the cuffs, so don't think of trying anything." He simply stared ahead. He couldn't help but notice how gently she was gentle when removing it, and how soft her hands were on his rough skin. Once she had removed the collar she quickly turned to the sink and washed the inside of it while he tried to wash off the dirt on his neck. When she turned back to him to put it back on she saw that he had missed a lot of the dirt so she motioned for the sponge. He looked at her confused but complied anyway and bent his head towards her again.

Hermione tried not to star but as she washed his neck she couldn't help but notice that his back was covered in long scars, some clearly old and faded and some still very red and recent. Sure, she had expected some scars of war, they all had them, but clearly Draco had been taking regular beatings for a long time. She didn't say anything, this must be the price of being one of Voldemorts 'favourites'. sShe simply finished rinsing his neck and replaced the collar. Then she did the same with the cuffs but instead of leaving him to wash off the dirt himself, she deftly took his hands in hers and washed his wrists. Never looking up at him, solely focused on the task of washing away any evidence of his previous residence from his skin.

He was too stunned to say anything. He couldn't make out exactly what the expression on her face was, but it wasn't anger, disgust or loathing. He would almost say it looked caring. It had been so long since anyone had been so gentle with him and for a moment he forgot where he was, his dire situation and who was touching and just enjoyed her light touches as she washed the dirt off the back of his neck. Finally, she was finished and she looked up at his piercing blue eyes for the first time since she removed the illusion charm. They both just stared at each other for the briefest of moments before she finally looked away and held out the sponge. "Here," she said, "You finish up. I need to go wash off the grime from that horrible place I picked you from. I'll be in my ensuite. You get dressed and go down to the kitchen. I'm sure you'll find it. Have anything you want out of the fridge." And then she turned and left. The whole interaction had left Draco stunned and she was out the door before he could even contemplate whether or not he wanted to thank her.


	3. Chapter 3 - The Almost Class Reunion

Authors notes:

I do not own Harry Potter. All these characters belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling.

Thank you for reading!

* * *

Draco thought about their interaction during the rest of his nice warm shower. He had been so angry at her, for being clever enough to find him, for buying him, for making him kneel before her. But now all he could think about where her soft hands on his skin. It had taken all of his concentration not to get hard while she was washing him. It had been months since he had been so close to a woman and if he wasn't being honest, he wasn't sure he had ever done something so intimate with one. And he couldn't help but notice that Hermione had certainly grown into a beautiful woman. Reluctantly he turned his thoughts to the situation at hand. Perhaps coming up here, being gentle and offering him food was her way of saying "let's start over." He decided that he was too tired to keep fighting tonight and to try being civil, so he could get some rest and get back to planning his escape in the morning.

After his shower, Draco put on the shirt and pajama pants Hermione had brought him and headed downstairs to the kitchen. He opened the fridge and pulled out the first plate he saw; cooked chicken. Then he started pulling more plates out of the fridge, pasta, salad, chocolate pudding. It had been so long since he had had a proper meal, he wanted some of everything. He had to laugh though, a few years ago he wouldn't have touched leftovers. And he certainly wouldn't have accepted his house elves sending him a mess of chicken, pasta, salad and chocolate pudding for dinner. He found the cupboard with plates and the cutlery drawer and set out a place for himself. He sat down and had the best meal he'd had in months.

Hermione had a quick shower. The hot water helped soothe her aching back and shoulders. When she got out, she stared at the robes she had taken off, she seriously contemplated burning them. She didn't want any reminders of how low she had stooped that day. With a flick of her wand she vanished them. Thinking she shouldn't leave Draco on his own too long, she put on her pyjama shorts and a tank top, threw on a dressing gown and headed downstairs.

The sight she saw when she entered the kitchen was priceless. Draco Malfoy, quite unceremoniously chewing on a chicken leg. She briefly thought of how much of a kick Harry and Ron would have at this sight. But then, of course, thinking of her former friends made her frown. Just then Draco looked up from his food and noticed her. He clearly thought her frown was directed at him.

"I, um, didn't set out a place for you." It was more of a statement than an apology, but Hermione waved it off.

"I'm not hungry right now." And then she motioned to all the plates, "You know the food will all still be here tomorrow. Actually," She pulled a notepad and pen off the fridge, "write down anything you like, and I'll pick it up tomorrow." Draco looked at the notepad but kept eating. "Look, Malfoy. We need to establish some ground rules. You don't want to be here, I don't really want you here, but we need to be able to work together." She stated matter-of-factly, sounding very much like the Hermione Draco remembered from school. After a pause, Draco spoke but continued eating, "What's in it for me?". Hermione rolled her eyes. Of course, this is what gets his attention, typical Slytherin. "I'll bring you and your friends' home." At this, he finally put down his chicken and met her hard gaze. "I'm serious Malfoy. I don't agree with this no tolerance, ten-year slavery policy. So many of our classmates haven't done anything wrong or have only committed small crimes and don't deserve to be put through this… No one deserves this." Hermione had said all of that in one breath, so she took a deep one and readjusted her shoulder which was still bothering her.

Draco finally leaned back and smirked "I knew the righteous Hermione Granger couldn't have changed that much. So what was with that show earlier? You can't actually want me to be your servant." Draco's momentary confidence was soon shaken when he saw Hermione's expression hadn't changed. She still had the same hard look on her face.

"Oh, I absolutely do want to you serve me. Like I said before, I'm aiming higher than just head of the aurors. But to do that, I need friends in high places. Friends who own deatheaters, and only invite other owners to their parties. So earlier was no act Malfoy. That's what I need from you."

Draco leaned forward again "I'm not sure what sounds more ridiculous, you seeking the power to be minister of magic or you saying you would bend your morals so far to do so Granger."

Hermione still did not waver, "I'm fighting people who seem to have lost their concept of humanity, and when it comes to watching someone I _like_ as much as you bowing down, I'll somehow manage to cope." Her tone had turned dark again as it was when they were in the living room together.

Draco sat up and swallowed hard. This was definitely not the Hermione Granger from school. He would have to rethink his strategy for dealing with her. Even in what seemed like a hopeless situation, Draco always knew to maintain his composure. So he held her gaze and remained silent. The silence was quickly broken when Hermione continued to explain her plan, "But you're right, I really don't like doing this. I really only need you playing servant in public. When it's just us you can be your usual prick self. It's just that I need to be absolutely certain, when we are in public that you won't act out. Obeying me has to be automatic for you. If you do something, break a rule, talk back or question me in public, I won't be able to stop others from punishing you. But if you cooperate, I can keep you safe and don't have to make you do anything embarrassing."

"You mean if I act like your lap dog."

Hermione tried to explain but Draco interrupted "Granger there is a slight flaw in your plan, you're only working on half of the issue. Sure you win the hearts of your allies, but what about the other side? How do you calm down the deatheater resistance. Making me a laughing stock doesn't help either of us."

"I've already considered that Malfoy, that's why this plan would go a lot more smoothly if I have your cooperation. I'll keep your reputation intact as much as possible. Meanwhile at parties, you can discreetly talk to your contacts and say that _you_ are manipulating _me_. That way we open up communication with the other side"

Draco suddenly burst into laughter.

"What's so funny?" Hermione asked, clearly annoyed that he wasn't taking her seriously.

"This could work, because no one would actually suspect we could work together. That we could agree on anything. That's actually quite brilliant, Granger. But I still don't see how partnering with you benefit from this in the end."

"We are not partners." Hermione snapped back at him and Draco returned to his downcast demeanour. "This is my plan. You do as I say or the deal is off. You're hardly in a position to bargain Malfoy, I saved your life. You weren't safe where you were. But even so, when all this is over, I'll allow you to return to society. As minister I could pardon you for all your crimes. That's the deal, that's your motivation."

"I don't seem to have much choice in this." Draco sneered back.

"No. Not really. Here are the rules. First, we have to be honest with each other. I know that's hard for a snake like you, but it's the only way this will will work. Second, you have to trust me. I know, again, that's hard for you, but if I tell you to do something you have to obey me. It's the only way I can keep you safe. Other than that, while you're here I'd appreciate if you could earn your keep by doing some laundry and cooking some meals."

"That's it huh? All I need to do is —" But Draco did not get a chance to finish his thought as Hermione's floo alarm rang and a few moments later two voices were heard. "'Mione? You here?" It was Ron. "Hermione!" That was Harry. Hermione jumped from her seat. She grabbed Draco's arm and dragged him out of his chair. Draco thought this was it, all this was just an act so the infuriating Golden Trio could get together for some fun before throwing his ass in Azkaban. He wanted to kick himself for being so stupid.

Then Hermione dragged Draco to the pantry and shoved him inside. "Stay quiet and out of sight until they leave." Hermione whispered as she shut the door, leaving Draco in the dark, utterly confused. He heard their voices outside.

"Hermione, there's been an attack on a number of ministry officials at their homes, it's all hands on deck at headquarters." Harry stated.

"OK I'm coming, but why did you come here in person? Why not just-"

"Hermione, I know we haven't seen eye to eye lately but we still love you." Said Ron's clearly strained voice.

"Trust Weseal-Bee to get all blubbery." Draco thought.

"We just wanted to make sure you were OK. Now let's go." Harry said. And then Draco heard three people floo out. Leaving him alone in the house.

* * *

The years since the final battle had been hard for Draco. Many of his classmates were looking to him for leadership, to tell them to keep fighting for the cause, to fight to the death if necessary. But he just didn't believe in it anymore. He wanted the fighting to stop for the war to be over.

His mother had been killed during the battle. His father handled it by focusing his efforts on uniting the deatheaters and scheming to get everyone safely back into their positions of power in the wizarding society. However, the ministry had closed all the doors that the old guard had used to slither their way into power. Draco watched his classmates and friends become more and more radical as the months dragged on. They started carrying out public attacks against the ministry without his father's approval. His father wanted him to calm his friends, make them see reason, but after months on the run, the young deatheaters had no interest in reason. They had no interest in sneaking around and running for their lives. They were angry with the ministry and Draco's old friend Theodore Nott began to rise to power, promising revenge against Harry Potter and the new ministry.

Eventually the deatheaters were forced to choose sides, the young vs. the old. Only Draco was a problem. Many young deatheaters still wanted to follow the prodigal son; Draco Malfoy, who stood firmly by his fathers side. His name carried weight and he still had the respect of many. But soon Draco found that many of his main supporters and best friends were going missing from missions, apparently captured. His best friend Blaise was the first to go, soon, the Greengrass sisters were captured as well. Draco and his father suspected Theo was behind this, as he wanted a clean break from the old deatheater regime. Fearing for his sons life, Lucius sent Draco away. To run on his own. He ran for three months before he was caught by those slave traders. Luckily Draco was quite well versed in illusion charms and managed to keep his true identity hidden. He spent almost four weeks trying to find a way to escape his captors, when Hermione Granger walked in the door.

* * *

It took Draco half an hour before he could muster the courage to leave the pantry. He cautiously opened the door, listening carefully for sign that someone could be in the house. Of course when he finally came out it was empty. Everyone had definitely left. As Draco placed the plates back in the refrigerator he thought about Hermione's plan and her offer. He really wasn't going to get a better deal than this. Helping out around the house wouldn't be a problem. Sure it was beneath someone of his breeding but if muggles could handle cleaning so could he, at least temporarily. The problem was the part he had to play in public. Bowing, serving and grovelling to people far below his status. And could he really trust her to keep him safe? He would be lucky if he wasn't Avada'd the moment he walked into one of these "parties". He shuddered. He had also heard that these parties the so called "good guys" were throwing could almost rival a pureblood party. Slaves not only serving drinks and food, but also their bodies, sometimes imperioused to do all kinds of embarrassing or lewd acts for entertainment. Could he really see his friends subjected to that? Could he handle going through that himself?

"This is Hermione Granger though. Could she sit by and watch something really terrible happen to me?" He thought. If there was anyone that he would trust not to break her word, it was Hermione. She wouldn't break a promise to even her worst enemy, and that just happened to be him. Perhaps he could go along with her plan for now. Draco didn't dare dream about finally being able to bring all his friends back home. But he at least figured he might be able to plan a better escape if he could find some allies at one of these so-called parties.

He cleaned his plate and decided to investigate his new living situation. There was a more formal dining room off the kitchen and living room with a large eight-person table. The living room had a love seat and two chairs in front of a large marble fireplace, classic, but nothing really remarkable. But it was lacking one thing, books. Where on earth were her books? She used to carry around half her library, he expected there to be piles of them in every corner. Curious. Finally he decided he was tired so he wandered up the stairs, past the bathroom he had used earlier and down a corridor. The corridor felt a bit… Draco couldn't pin point what the feeling was. So he shook his head and moved on the the door at the end.

When he opened it, he found himself in Hermione's bedroom. There was a large four poster bed with lilac sheets and he could see the open door to her ensuite bathroom. So where was he supposed to sleep? Her bed? Absolutely not. The tiny couch downstairs? He would hardly fit. He went back downstairs and did another lap of the house wondering if he had missed a wing of the house. He found nothing else. If this was her idea of treating him civilly she had really lost her mind. Or maybe her promises of only being a servant in public were just lies. And her niceties were her way of trying to manipulate him into submission. Draco turned left her bedroom slamming the door behind him. As he stomped down the stairs to find some blankets to make a bed on the floor of the living room, he allowed his paranoia and untrusting Slytherin nature to get the best of him. She had tricked him. He was ready to agree to all her plans, to bow down to her in front of all her friends while they laughed so she could accomplish her dream. Really, she had just been manipulating him. No one manipulates Draco Malfoy. He decided he would not be taken for a fool and not only was he going to escape but first he would get his revenge on the Gryffindor Princess.

So many months alone and afraid had taken it's toll on Draco, and whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was not quite as sharp as he was before. If he had been on top of his game, he would have thought that Hermione must have an office or library where she kept all her books. And he certainly would have recognized that odd feeling in the corridor as a concealment charm. The typical concealment charm placed on the private offices of any high level auror to prevent people wandering in. The concealment charm that Hermione forgot to take down before leaving.

* * *

I know this chapter was a bit lacking in action but I promise things heat up in the next one, and stay that way!


	4. Chapter 4 - Dragons Don't Give Up Easily

Authors notes:

I do not own Harry Potter. All these characters belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling.

As promised, some action. WARNING this start to get smutty.

Thanks for reading! Feedback always welcome!

* * *

Hermione did not return for three days. This left Draco with three nights of terrible sleep from sleeping on the ground, leaving him with a sore neck and an even worse mood than before. Not to mention the only clothes he had were the pyjamas she had given him that first night. He found the muggle laundry machine in the kitchen and more or less figured out how to use it. "She's already getting me to do chores" he thought scornfully standing in the kitchen with only a towel wrapped around his waist as he waited for his clothes to dry.

Hermione had finally sent an owl after the second night Draco had been left alone. It was sort.

 _D,_

 _Sorry, I had to leave, I'm sure you heard about the attacks. I only just got a chance to write to you. I hope you have kept yourself busy, and that you've had plenty to read! I expect to be back before tonight._

 _\- H_

Draco had read the news about the attacks in the daily prophet Hermione had delivered by owl each morning. But he was confused and annoyed at her comment about having "plenty to read". The only book in sight is the manual for the collar. Trust her to expect him to study for his new role. But given that he had nothing else to do, he picked up the book and began reading. It was possibly the most outrageous and idiotic book he had ever had the misfortune of reading. It sounded like a manual for bringing home a new puppy. It even included handy tips to keep your new "rehabilitation servant" submissive, such as making sure your servant doesn't eat at the dinner table with you, as they may begin to feel like part of the family, making them "earn" rewards such as books or free time. And one suggestion for handling particularly difficult servants, that really made Draco's eye twitch, was to take away basic amenities such as clothing, hot meals or their bed. He read on the couch until he fell asleep.

He was jolted awake by the sound of the owl pecking on the kitchen window to deliver that mornings daily prophet. He moaned and slowly got up from the couch, rubbing his neck which had a major kink from sleeping on the couch. He read the prophet, there was nothing too exciting. The attacks had been confirmed to be the work of the young deatheaters, but he could have guessed that already.

After breakfast, Draco picked up the manual once again. He wasn't going to read the entire thing, but he figured he could have a quick look for any information about how to remove the stupid collar. He was flipping quickly through the pages when he came upon a section labelled "default settings". It started listing the basic things he already knew, dampens magic of any kind, prevents them from leaving the property unless accompanied by the owner. Then it went on to list the security measures, which he had already experienced. The last section was definitely news to him however, labelled "aids in submission". Apparently, the owner could charm the collar to force the servant have to have to ask permission for everything. For example, the servant would not be able leave the room without asking or start eating without asking. The book said normally most of these were not used and only one was set by default, not being able to orgasm without the permission of his owner or another servant owner.

"No!" Draco thought, "No way would Granger have done this to me. No way in hell would she have the balls to do this." Draco needed a shower anyway, so he stomped up the stairs to the bathroom and decided to test this particular feature of the collar. He got undressed and turned on the hot water. He thought back to the other night, where Hermione had her soft hands on his neck and wrists. But in this version of events instead of leaving afterwards, she slowly takes off her robes. First revealing her shoulders, and then her gorgeous perky tits with hard rosy pink nipples, just begging for his tongue to taste them. Slowly she releases the rest of the robes and he gets to take in the full view of her. His eyes follow the curve of her hips, then down her beautiful long legs as she gingerly steps into the shower and takes the sponge from him again. He turns to face her and she begins washing his chest. He looks down at her and watches the water beading over her chest and dripping down over her breasts as she moves lower with the sponge, finally coming to his long hard member. Back in the real-world Draco can feel he is close, and as the imaginary Hermione starts to work on him, he finally gets to the point where he should feel release, but none comes. "FUCK!" He yelled aloud in frustration and slams the shower temperature control to cold. Breathing heavily, he puts on hand on the shower wall in front on him and allows the water to run over his head, and across his back. A few seconds later, the water turns ice cold and eventually his breathing slows, his erection goes down, but his anger does not abate.

Draco went about the rest of his day in a haze of anger. He paced the living room trying to figure out a means of escape. The first step of which, would be to remove this blasted collar. He combed through the manual looking for a way to remove it, but it was pretty clear that the only way it was coming off is if Hermione removed it. Eventually the sun set, and Draco once again found himself sleeping on the couch, still not wanting to risk Hermione coming home and finding him in her bed. He was awoken again by the owl's incessant pecking at the window. And in the harsh light of the dawn, with his neck and back aching worse than yesterday, his priorities shifted.

Priority number one, sleep in an actual bed. Which meant convincing Granger to let him sleep beside her. Priority number two, was his plan for revenge. He didn't just want to sleep beside Hermione. No, his plan was to sleep _with_ her. If he could get her to sleep with him, it would mean she trusts him on some level. And as any good Slytherin knows, trust is something that can easily be exploited. Sure, sleeping with a muggleborn was beneath him, and he would have balked at the idea back in Hogwarts, but times were tough. He forced himself to ignore how thinking about sleeping with Hermione made his cock twitch to life, dismissing the feeling as simply going too long without having sex.

The past three days for Hermione had been chaos. Ten separate ministry officials had been attacked in their homes. Not only did they have 4 dead bodies and 3 wizards in St. Mungo's, but she had ten crimes scenes to manage and meetings with the Minister to discuss improvements to security measures in all department and in the private homes of ministry workers. She hadn't even had time to really sleep, only a few hours here and there when she fell asleep at her desk. As a result, her back was killing her. Finally, things had calmed down and she could return home for a shower and a good nights sleep. She hoped Draco hadn't found any trouble to get into. She figured he would be able to amuse himself with the books in her former office, now Dracos bedroom.

It must have been past 11 o'clock when she flooed back home. She found Draco waiting for her on the couch, in his pajamas, reading the daily prophet. "Hey Malfoy, I'm sorry you've been stuck here on your own, but I'm sure you read about the chaos I've been dealing with at the ministry" she said tiredly, gesturing towards the newspaper in his hands. "I'm just going to have a quick snack, have a bath and go to bed. Can we talk in the morning?" Then moving her hadn't to massage her shoulder again.

Draco had been strangely silent until this point. Not commenting on her work, not fishing for information on the investigation, not even taking a stab at her undoubtedly haggard appearance. Her hair had reverted to its usual state of fizziness, she hadn't put on any makeup in three days and the bags under her eyes were dark and puffy. Clearly, she needed some rest. Finally, Draco spoke and stood up "You get your snack and I'll go prepare the bath for you.". Hermione was shocked. She thought she must have fallen asleep on her feet and was now dreaming that Malfoy was actually being nice to her. "R-really?" She finally managed to stutter out. Draco, who was already halfway up the slaves simply replied snarkily "What are slaves for?". In her tired state she couldn't think of a retort and put the queasy feeling her conscience was giving her aside. "Just get some rest" she thought "and handle this in the morning.".

Hermione made her way upstairs and was once again surprised by what she found. Draco had, in fact, run the bath for her and added oils that would definitely help soothe her back. When she entered the bathroom, he was just laying out her towel and bathrobe for her. He looked up and approached her, "Would you like me to help you with those robes, mistress?" He was standing only a few inches away, and Hermione could have sworn he said that in almost a seductive tone. She brushed it off, thinking she must really be over tired. "No, I'll be fine. Thank you, Malfoy. Goodnight." And with that he simply nodded and left the bathroom.

The hot water and soothing oils were exactly what her aching back needed. She felt completely relaxed when she left the bathroom. Leaving her hair to dry on its own, she put on her white tank top, blue pajama shorts and her pink silk robe. As she exited the bathroom, she was looking down to tie the knot off the strings of her robe. When she looked up, she dropped the strings. Draco was standing there, shirtless, in the middle of her bedroom. She couldn't stop her eyes from wandering down his chest, to his abs and then down the perfect V that would lead to… "No" she thought, "best not to think about that." Hermione hadn't really been listening as Draco slowly approached saying some sort of apology for surprising her and that he just wanted to make sure she didn't need anything else before bed. Again, he stopped only inches away.

This close to her, Draco could feel the radiating warmth of her body, and smell the lavender oils he had put in the bath for her. She really was intoxicating. Being so close, to such a beautiful woman was proving more difficult than he thought. As he bent to bring his head closer to hers, their lips were almost touching. Hermione was looking up at him, her full pink lips slightly parted. He moved one hand up to her cheek, intent on finally kissing her. "Concentrate!" He thought to himself. "Don't go too fast." But he could feel himself getting hard already. And he could feel her trembling beneath his fingertips. Perhaps being so close was making her uncomfortable and he needed her to relax. He had to slow down, even though all he wanted to do was throw her on the bed and plunge into her. After a moment that seemed to last minutes Draco turned his head without making contact and came up behind Hermione, gently placing his hands on his shoulders. He led her over to the bed saying softly, "How about for now we get you into bed and I'll give you a massage."

Until this point, Hermione had really been too stunned to react to Draco's sudden softness, close contact. As she sat on the edge of the bed, Draco kneeled behind her. It had been such a long three days, all she could think about was how nice his it felt to have someone so warm, so close. And how his breath and light touches from his lips on her neck gave her goosebumps. After a minute Draco was kissing down her neck and moved to pull her robe off her shoulders to get at more skin. But that small movement snapped Hermione back to reality.

Hermione eyes snapped open and in one quick motion she stood and whirled around on Draco. "No!" She yelled. With him kneeling on the bed and her standing they were eye to eye. Hermione, now fully awake had figure out Draco's game. For some inexplicable reason, that bastard was trying to seduce her! "What do you think you are doing Malfoy? Touching a mudblood like me. Isn't that beneath a high standing pureblood such as yourself?" She spat at him. Draco could see he was in danger. The fire in her eyes was clear and all he could do was slowly make his way off the bed hands out and try to diffuse the situation. "Granger… mistress, I'm sor—" was all he got out before Hermione flicked her hand and Draco found himself being literally throw out of the room.

"Well that didn't go as planned" he muttered to himself as he slowly got up off his back in hallway. He thought about what had happened and wasn't really sure where he went wrong. What was particularly puzzling to Draco though, was how she was powerful enough to wandlessly cast him from her room. He himself had been practicing wandless magic for years and had only managed to throw a bludger a few feet, never mind a full person. Although tonight had not gone as planned, he had at least learned a bit of new information about his captor, that he would have to consider when planning his escape. He made his way downstairs, back to the couch, to get some rest.

Meanwhile, Hermione paced the room, running her hands through her hair. So many questions were swimming around in her mind. What the hell just happened? Why did she let her guard down around him for even a second? A few more seconds and he could have seen it. He would never obey her if he saw, he would never respect her. She took a breath, reminding herself that he didn't see anything, and he was out of the room now. Everything was fine. She would get a good night's rest and deal with him in the morning.

Hermione got into bed and stared at the ceiling. After twenty minutes she still hadn't fallen asleep. She had begun to feel bad for turning on him like that and throwing him out of the room. He really hadn't done anything. She could have politely asked him to leave. But of course, she got angry and lost her temper. Finally, she decided to get out of bed and go apologize to him if he's still awake.

She left her bedroom and turned to her old office, quietly knocking on the door while turning the handle. She opened the door and looked around the room, confused. Nothing had been touched. The bed was still made and extra clothes laid out on the dresser, just as she had left them before bringing Draco home. That's when a wave a realization hit Hermione. She realized she forgot to take down the concealment charm. He's been wandering around the house in the same pajamas, with nothing to do but hate her for the past three days. He had been messing with her to get back at her! She sighed to herself. She couldn't really be angry with him. This must have been a stressful three days for him.

Hermione made her way downstairs and found Draco sleeping lightly on the couch. He awoke as she entered the room. Hermione held out her hand and motioned for him to take it. He looked at her cautiously, clearly not knowing what to expect. "Come on Malfoy, I have something to show you". He took her hand and allowed her to lead him upstairs. There she took out her wand and dropped the concealment charm. "This is my former office, fully equipped with standard concealment charms for all high level aurors. I'm sorry I forgot to remove it before I left." She said as she opened the door for him.

When Draco saw the room, he realized his anger over the past few days really had simply been borne out of paranoia. He looked around. She had given him a large queen-sized bed with emerald coloured sheets. She had clearly put some thought into what might make him feel at home. Lining the wall of the room were bookshelves, filled with books of all subjects, both muggle and magic. He looked back at Hermione who was just turning to leave, still massaging her shoulder. "Granger." He called as he took a few steps towards her. "I, um, really can help with your shoulder if you'll let me." She turned and looked at him again. It wasn't exactly an apology for earlier but his tone and the expression on his face conveyed his meaning. He went to put his hand on her shoulder. But she flinched away from. Him "No!" She said soundly somewhat panicked. Then she cleared her throat and said more softly, "No thank you. You really needn't bother yourself. I'm fine. Goodnight Malfoy".

"Goodnight." he replied quietly and closed his door. So, it's not closeness, and it's not contact, it's something specific to her back that's her trigger. Draco filed that information away for later as well. They both went to their beds and immediately fell into deep sleeps. It was undoubtedly the best nights sleep they had had in a long time.


	5. Chapter 5 - Ginny Invites Herself Over

Authors notes:

I do not own Harry Potter. All these characters belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling.

Sorry about the delay for this chapter and I'm sorry it's short. I've been on vacation for two weeks. Also, this chapter turned out to be kind of long and I'm still working out the kinks towards the end. So for now, here is the beginning and it lets you know what is coming up next!

Thanks for reading!

* * *

The next morning, Hermione and Draco were sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast, decidedly not speaking about any of the events of last night. Both had silently decided to try to move forward and instead focused on the next steps to making Hermione a solid candidate for Minister of Magic. Draco was explaining the importance of being associated with the social elite and was trying to figure out how to broach the subject of her "image".

"… All I'm saying Granger, is that to be associated with the higher classes, you can't just show up to a party. You have to look like you fit in. All of those witches have wardrobes full of Madame Malkins finest robes."

"You're saying disheveled-auror-who-hasn't-slept-in-days, isn't "in" this season?" Hermione said with a smirk.

Draco gave her a small smile. At least she seemed to be in a good mood this morning. "I'm just saying it's somewhere to start." He was working on how to bring up the need to tame that mess on her head she called hair, when Hermiones' owl came tapping at the window with the daily prophet and a letter.

Hermione read over the letter quickly and immediately looked concerned. "What in Merlins' name could be happening now?" Draco thought. Truth be told, his actions over the past few days had him worried. All these months on the run, the torture, the captivity, had clearly taken toll on his mind. He wasn't going to outsmart the brightest witch of their age if he couldn't even recognize a basic concealment charm. He had been hoping for a few days of peace to be able to work on his mental state and make a plan.

Hermione had begun pacing the kitchen, muttering something that sounded like "This isn't good. I'm not ready". She was biting her nail and pacing when Draco finally broke her panic spiral "Well, what is it Granger? Let's see it."

"Ginny knows…" Was all she replied.

"Knows what, Granger?"

Hermione kept pacing.

"Granger, what does she know? Not about… not about me."

Finally, Hermione stopped pacing and looked at him and Dracos' heart sank. He wasn't ready to face anyone yet, especially not a Weasley. Draco gulped and asked to see the letter, and Hermione handed it over.

 _Dearest Hermione,_

 _I had the most interesting conversation with Parvarti Patil yesterday about how you had asked her for advice on what collar system to buy for a deatheater. You did not seriously buy one, did you? You're so against that policy!_

 _Since we apparently have some catching up to do, I'm inviting myself over. Let's have a girls night, just me, you, Parvarti and Lucida. Yes, that's right, Lucida Persode. We met at my last quidditch game and I may have mentioned that you were thinking about moving into politics. She was really excited about having a woman as Minister of Magic and says she wants to meet you._

 _So Friday, 8 o'clock, your place, make sure there is lots of wine. And do something with your hair!_

 _Love, Ginny_

Draco read and re-read it "Merlin Granger, she doesn't know anything about me specifically. It will be fine." He said exasperatedly. He also couldn't help but snicker at Ginny mentioning Hermione's hair.

"Will it? You're really going to serve dinner to Ginny Weasley? I'll admit Malfoy, this whole thing has gone better than I expected so far, but are you seriously ready to face this?"

Draco thought about it. If there was anyone at Hogwarts he was crueler to than Hermione, it was the Weasleys. And Ginny Weasley in particular would probably want to see him suffer. But Hermione had promised that if he didn't act out, she would protect him. Draco decided that there was only one way to find out if she would keep her word. "I'm ready if you are." He replied coolly.

The next few days went by quickly. Hermione still had work during the day, leaving her only the evenings to obsess over every detail of her girl's night. Draco noticed she was acting more frazzled than usual, which made sense as an introduction to Lucida Persode was a big deal. That witch could make or break a campaign; she had all the right contacts and could offer plenty of funding. Although Hermione didn't want Dracos' help planning the party, she did allow him to write to Madame Malkins and get her a private fitting appointment the next day. Apparently even as fugitives, the Malfoy name still carried a lot of weight in the wizarding world.

Hermione typically didn't care much for fashion, but when she came home from Madame Malkins, she look quite pleased with her new robes. Seeing herself in the mirror, looking like she could actually fit in, she finally felt like she may be able to pull off her plan. Hermione had gone upstairs to put her new outfits away, when Draco quietly knocked on her open bedroom door.

Dracos' concern for what was going to happen at this party had been growing. He knew he needed to stay calm and not let his paranoia get the best of him again, but now it was the night before the party and he was at Hermiones' door looking for reassurance. So as nonchalantly as he could manage, he asked "So what's the plan for tomorrow, Granger? What are my duties? Greeting guests at the door? And what should I wear? Or am I serving dinner naked?" He added his classic smirk at the end.

Hermione could feel her cheeks go red at the thought of him carrying out a platter of turkey naked. So, she decided to smooth out an imaginary wrinkle in the sleeve of the robe she had just hung up. "Sweet Merlin, no. Just wear your regular robes. And you'll be busy working on dinner, so I'm greeting the guests at the door. We'll leave the big reveal for when we all sit down to dinner."

"Granger, did you just say sit down to dinner? I'm not sure you know how this works. In a pureblood house, a slave wouldn't eat until after…"

"I'm perfectly aware of how _this_ works Malfoy" Hermione said sharply as she cut him off. "And as I told you, I don't agree with it. Part of the plan is to show people that you don't have to resort to violence to achieve "rehabilitation". So yes, you're sitting down to dinner with us. After, we'll have drinks in the living room. You just need to focus on making sure everyone has a full glass. It'll just be a quiet girls' night." Draco was about to turn to go when Hermione turned to him and added more softly "And Malfoy, you know how Ginny feels about you. Don't do anything stupid. And make sure you don't call me Granger."

"Whatever you say, _Mistress_ " He gave a low bow for added emphasis before exiting the room. As the rational part of his brain had thought, she didn't want him to do anything ridiculous. Just serve dinner, like some common waiter. Beneath him, but it should be bearable.

Hermione shook her head and started getting ready for bed, hoping he would be able to say that word at least once tomorrow night without sounding completely sarcastic.


	6. Chapter 6 - The Dinner Party

Authors notes:

I do not own Harry Potter. All those characters belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling.

Here it is. It's pretty long.

Thanks for reading!

* * *

Friday finally arrived and at exactly 8 o'clock in the evening Ginny Weasley apparated onto her best friends street. She was excited to find out exactly what Hermione had been up to as she hadn't seen much of her best friend since the ambush in the field. She rang the doorbell and after a moment Hermione answered wearing a beautiful set of cream coloured robes. She had even managed to tame her wild hair into neat subtle curls. She greeter her best friend with a big hug and a huge smile, because this cool and confident version of Hermione was something she hadn't seen in at least a year. Then, she leaned into the door and looked around for signs of a deatheater.

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked, laughing.

"I should have known you wouldn't actually do it."

"Do what?"

"Buy a deatheater."

"Oh, he's in the kitchen." Hermione said with a wave of her hand.

Ginny's jaw dropped. "HE is in the kitchen? It's a _man_! Hermione you really are on the road to recovery."

Then, the old Hermione started to show through; the slightly exasperated Hermione. "Honestly, Ginerva it's not like that. Just come in, I'll get you a glass of wine."

Parvarti was the next too arrive. She worked for the daily prophet as a reporter and her, Hermione and Ginny often had lunch together when their work schedules allowed for it. Lucida of course, arrived fashionably late. Hermione had seen her a few times at ministry galas but had never actually spoken to her. She was a tall, slender woman, with long blonde hair. Her robes matched her pale green eyes, overall she was a classic beauty. As she came into the house she greeted Hermione warmly with a short hug. "Hermione Granger. I'm so happy to finally make your acquaintance. I've been following your impressive career. The youngest head of the aurora office. Well, both yourself and Mr. Potter."

"I'm humbled you accepted the invitation to come tonight." Hermione said, suddenly feeling flustered.

"My dear, you have nothing to be humble about." Lucida said with a coy smile, and went in to the living room to say hello to Ginny and Parvarti.

Soon after, Hermione announced that dinner was ready and everyone headed into the dining room. Most of the food was laid out on brand new white and purple china and tiny white candles floated above the table. Everyone sat down. Parvarti was the first to notice the table was set for four "Are we expecting someone else?" She asked. "Not really." Was all Hermione replied. As everyone was sitting down, they commented on how nice everything looked, but it suddenly went silent. All eyes were on the kitchen door where Draco had just entered.

Draco took a breath and maintained his composure, exactly as he had been raised to do. He strode over to the table and calmly started taking lids off the dishes, describing what was laid out. He went through the entire process with a silent audience, feeling very aware of the collar and cuffs he was wearing. When Draco had finished explaining everything, not that anyone had heard a word of it, he looked around as if waiting for questions. Since none came, he simply asked if anyone cared for wine. Lucida was the first to break the silence "I think we could all use a large glass of wine." She said, he eyebrow still raised in surprise.

The silence took over again as Draco went around the table pouring everyone a glass. He kept his eyes open for anyone reaching for their wand, especially as he approached Ginny Weasley. As he approached her, he could see she was shaking in anger. He carefully moved closer and leaned over to reach for her wine glass but was startled when she suddenly stood, drew her wand and yelled "Are you kidding me?! I'm not sure what I should hex you with first!". Ginny pointed her wand at Draco, who slowly straightened and took a step back. Well, he figured that now he would see if Hermione really would protect him. He looked back at her, Hermione seemed unfazed. "I told you she would be the first to say something." Hermione said to Draco with a quiet laugh. Draco gave her a quick smile and wondered how she could make him feel so at ease when a Weasley was aiming a wand at his heart. "Really Ginny, we are trying to have a civilized dinner, please sit down. You can see he has a collar on, he can't do magic. Let's just eat." Ginny sat down, too shocked to form a sentence. So Draco finished pouring the wine, all the while keeping an eye on Ginny and then sat down next to Hermione. Everyone started eating.

"This isn't funny Hermione." Ginny said, finally finding her words.

"No it's not, Ginny. I'm very seriously working on Malfoys' rehabilitation." Hermione stated.

Ginny continued her rant, throwing the make-Hermione-look-good plan out the window, "He's beyond rehabilitation! He's dangerous Hermione, he should be locked up! What would Harry and Ron say?"

Bringing Harry and Ron into this set Hermione off. "I don't need Harry or Rons permission. For anything. I can take care of myself. I'm one of the top aurors in this country Ginny, I can handle Draco Malfoy."

"For Merlins sake Hermione, they don't even know do they? What are they going to say?"

"If I can handle this one," Hermione said gesturing towards Draco, "I can handle Harry and Ron. Let's talk about this later." she glared at Ginny.

"You're handling him?" Ginny straightened in her chair and leaned in. "Then why is he eating at the table like an actual person?"

"Ginerva, really." Hermione started.

"That's true, did you not read the manual I gave you Hermione?" Parvarti cut in.

"Obviously not." Everyone looked surprised at Hermione admission, especially Draco. "I mean, I started it, but you should have seen some of the ridiculous suggestions. He is a person and he can eat at the table with the rest of us. Anyway, would you have every imagined the Draco Malfoy cooking you a meal? " She gestured towards Draco.

"Good point, it's probably poisoned." Ginny said pushing her plate away. But the look Hermione gave her made her pull it back towards her and continue eating. "I'll believe it when I hear him call you mistress." Ginny mumbled angrily.

Lucida and Parvarti took a big sips of wine, clearly entertained by the whole exchange. And conversation soon turned to the latest gossip and last nights quidditch match.

After dinner everyone retired to the living room. Draco served after-dinner drinks to everyone and then went into the kitchen to clean up. He couldn't stop thinking about how Hermione hadn't read the manual and how she probably didn't even know about the default settings.

Meanwhile in the living room, Ginny felt bad about arguing with Hermione when she should have been helping her impress Lucida. She took every chance she got to mention Hermione's forward thinking and how should would be so much more helpful working on policies than in the auror office. "You know Hermione, Ginny may have a point." Lucida said, "you're driven, and clearly ambitious, taking on a project like Draco Malfoy. Have you thought about moving up in the Ministry?"

"I have been thinking of running for a higher position, yes Lucida." Hermione replied. After the show during dinner, Hermione had half expected Lucida to make up an excuse and leave, but she seemed to be enjoying herself and seemed very interested in Hermiones' career.

"In that case, I think we should get to know each other better. Perhaps I shall invite you to my next party."

Draco re-entered the living room having finished cleaning up and Lucida nodded towards him and she said "I know Blaise would love to see him." Draco tried to conceal his interest in being reacquainted with his old friend. "But," Lucida continued, "I'd need to be sure your new servant here, isn't going to upset my other guests.".

Draco had noticed that no one had seemed very convinced by his act during dinner. Subservient didn't come easily to a Malfoy. If he was going to get Hermione invited to that party he would have to convince them that she had really tamed him. He offered everyone a refill on their drinks and when he was finished Hermione motioned to the seat beside her on the couch. But he paused, He knew Hermione wanted to treat him as much like an equal as possible, but that wasn't going to convince three women who hated him that he really could be trusted to behave. He decided to swallow his pride and sat down on the floor at Hermiones' feet.

Once again the room went silent and all eyes were on Draco. "This had better get them to believe" he thought. The conversation resumed after a moment, but he could feel how stiff Hermione was next to him. If this was going to work, she needed to help him sell it. He leaned against her leg slightly, looked up at her and subtly cocked an eyebrow at her. She understood his signal that she needed to relax and took a breath. She was nervous and had been massaging her neck and shoulder often tonight, not only because her back was bothering her but because she felt the need to fidget. To seem more relaxed, and too keep her hand occupied, she opted to carefully move her hand to Draco, and gently start playing with his hair. She hoped he wouldn't mind, his blond hair felt very soft, and being able to just play with it between her fingertips was helping her focus on the conversation.

Draco couldn't help but think that the entire situation wasn't so bad. Her hand in his hair actually felt kind of nice. He looked over to Lucida to gauge her reaction. She had noticed how relaxed they seemed and seemed convinced. Getting to this party brought him one step closer to freedom, and Draco was determined to seal the deal, so he decided to go and entertain Parvarti and Lucida. If he could charm half the girls at Hogwarts, keeping these two entertained should be a piece of cake.

Hermione watched as Draco went over and knelt in front of Lucida and Pavarti. He had his charming smile on. She remembered how much of a flirt he could be to the pureblood girls at Hogwarts. He had trusted her earlier with Ginny pointing a wand directly at him, so she decided trust him with this. Socializing had never been her strong suit. With the others occupied, she took the opportunity to continue her conversation with Ginny about Harry and Ron.

"Gin, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."

"I would have told you this is a bad idea. What on earth were you thinking bringing a snake like him into your house?"

"I just found him and didn't have much time to make a decision. It was either take him to jail or find a way to make him useful for the campaign. This could really help me."

"Or really hurt you. What if he embarrasses you? What if he escapes? I know you're one tough witch Hermione, but he is really dangerous."

"I've taken precautions Gin."

"Look I don't mean to badger you, I'm just worried. But if you think you can handle it, I'll support you, as always…"

Ginny had always been on Hermione's side. She too felt that Harry and Ron had lost their way, and had even been the one to inform Hermione of Harry's plan to run for minister before he announced it. As much as she loved the Harry and her brother, she wanted to see an end to the suffering and an end to the war. As a healer she had seen the consequences of this continued hatred first hand. She knew that Hermione would be better for the wizarding world and had encouraged her to run for Minister in the first place.

"But we need to talk about Harry and Ron." Ginny continued. "Now that Parvarti knows about Malfoy, it's only a matter of time before the entire world knows. You need to tell them before they hear it from someone else."

"You're right. I'm just worried they'll go into a rage and do something rash."

"There's not going to be a good time to tell them, but do it soon. I can't handle lying to them. Ron is oblivious, but Harry can always tell when I'm holding back."

"I'll tell them in the next few days. Okay? For now lets-"

Hermiones' thoughts were interrupted when she heard high-pitched giggling from across the room and looked over to see that Draco was no longer on the floor. He was now sandwiched between her two other guests on the couch and at some point had misplaced his shirt. She felt a sudden pang of jealousy, seeing the two other women looking at him like he was dessert.

Draco had been "entertaining" Parvarti and Lucida, every once in a while looking over to Hermione who was too deep in conversation to notice what was happening on his side of the room. Her face and her posture were so much more relaxed while chatting with her friend. Keeping this secret about him the last few weeks and isolating herself from her friends had clearly raised her stress levels.

As things progressed with Parvarti and Lucida, they had wanted to know if he still had the body of a quidditch player. Given his recent lack of sexual encounters, he figured this may be an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone; get the party invitation and get some action. Things were going well for Draco, Parvarti was moving her hand from his shoulder, down his chest, down his abs, and taking hold of his belt buckle when Hermione interrupted them with a "Ahem!" Parvarti jerked her hand back and chuckled at the extreme look of disappointment on Dracos face.

Hermione feeling uncomfortable, and needing to fidget began rubbing her shoulder while trying to come up with a reason for interrupting, "I'm.. uhm… not really one to throw wild parties. Draco how about you find your shirt?"

"My apologies, mistress." Draco said with a small nod and started looking around for his shirt.

"Someone wants to keep her boytoy all to herself" Parvarti said coyly.

"Gods no, he's not my "boytoy" as you put it. I'm not…" Hermione said in disbelief. That would literally be sleeping with the enemy. Not to mention crossing some kind of moral line.

"How are you not sleeping with him? Do you not remember his reputation back at Hogwarts?" Parvarti continued, knowing this particular subject always made Hermione uncomfortable, but the she figured the girl needed to loosen up, and Draco could certainly help with that.

Hermione continued to squirm in her seat trying to figure out what to say. The whole conversation had her thinking far too much about Dracos' body and what he might be like in bed and she could feel herself turning red. Lucida came to her rescue. "Oh no, of course dear. We'll keep things classy _tonight_. Although I am curious about this reputation of his… We'll save the wild partying for next Saturday. I'll send you an owl with the details. I do hope you will join us."

"Well," Draco thought, "at least I accomplished one goal tonight." He was still feeling frustrated about the collar and being interrupted. His shirt had ended up on the floor behind Parvarti and when he went to reach for it she whispered to him "I thought you were coming on a bit strong earlier. Now I know why." She said with a devilish smirk. "She hasn't change the collar from the default settings has she?"

Draco was taken aback, Parvarti was more observant than he thought. He looked to Hermione, who was already busy talking to Lucida and Ginny again, and shook his head.

"So you thought you could use us to get around that? Ha! No way Draco Malfoy. The girl is repressed, and needs to get back on the broomstick, if you know what I mean." Parvarti then quickly turned and rejoined the conversation with the other women. "Hermione, you've been rubbing your shoulder a lot tonight. It's still bothering you. Is your new servant not helping you with that?"

Ginny shot Parvarti a look and said tersely "Of course he's not helping with that. Why would she want anyone else to see those scars?"

"Why doesn't she just put a blanket on her back?" Parvarti shot back.

"Ooh or he could wear a blindfold!" Lucida added cheerfully.

"Or both!" Parvarti said sitting back in her chair with a big smile.

"It's actually not a bad idea Hermione…" Ginny added slowly. "Your back is clearly still bothering you"

Hermione gave her friend a look that said "why are you betraying me?" And simply stated "We'll see." She then turned the conversation to what to wear on to Lucidas' party on Saturday.

Draco silently had to hand it to Parvarti, a massage would be a good start, but this was Hermione Granger, uptight bookworm who certainly didn't want him touching her. He would have to keep thinking about how to solve his problem. He also continued to wonder what everyone else knew and he didn't about Hermione's back. Everyone had scars from this war, why would she be so afraid of him seeing them.

It was getting late into the evening and the women decided to call it a night, leaving Hermione and Draco alone again. There wasn't much to clean up, so Hermione sat down and suggested that Draco grab them both a glass of wine. Hermione needed to decompress before heading up to bed as it had been a stressful evening, for both of them, she remembered. "Malfoy, I know tonight couldn't have been easy. Thanks for handling it so well."

Draco simply nodded in reply. When he thought about it, the evening hadn't been so bad. Having two gorgeous women fauning over him half the night was a nice boost to his ego. But any time he felt concerned, he looked over to Hermione and felt instantly reassured. She had also shown she could be trusted to look out for him, something he realized he had been sorely missing the past few months.

They talked about the evening and laughed about looks on everyone's faces when Draco walked in at dinner. Overall, they both decided that the night had been a success. No one had tried to hex Draco and they had been invited to Lucidas next big party. On remembering that Hermione began to look worried, thinking of all the things that could go wrong. "Tonight is not the time to worry, Granger, you can stress about it tomorrow."

"You're right, maybe we should turn in."

"Um, before that, I was thinking…"

"Yes?"

"I know you're touchy about it, but what if we tried the blindfold and blanket idea?"

"Are you seriously offering me a massage?"

"Why does that always shock you? I can be nice every once in a while… Also it's really distracting to people trying to have a conversation with you. No one wants a minister of magic who fidgets so much."

There was the Malfoy charm she was used to receiving. She didn't know if it was the wine, the stress from the evening or her earlier jealously for how Parvarti and Lucida looked at him. She decided to blame the wine and stress and then replied, "Okay Malfoy, we can try it. But where would we get a blindfold?"

Draco went rummaging through the box of supplies that came with the collar and came up dangling a blindfold from his index finger and holding massage oil in the other hand. "It comes with the servant supplies, of course. I wonder what else is in here, I think I saw a handcuffs too…" He said cheekily and made as if to go looking in the box again.

"Of course it does. Lets leave the handcuffs for now and just get this over with."

Let's just get this over with was not what he was used to hearing from women, but stil,l something about the way she said lets leave the handcuffs _for now,_ made him opptimistic. It really had been too long since he'd had a good wank and it was really becoming a distraction to him.

They both made their way upstairs and Draco agreed to meet Hermione in her room once they had both changed into their pyjamas. Hermione was climbing onto the bed when Draco came in. "Lost your shirt again already Malfoy, really?" Draco had put on his pyjama pants, but no top. "Nothing you haven't seen before Granger, anyway this is how I sleep." Hermione just shook her head and focused on fluffing up her pillow and certainly not on thinking about how his chiseled abs made her feel hot in all the wrong places. He walked over to her. She had her pink pyjama shorts on and her silk robe, but clearly no top underneath. He told himself to stop thinking about what was just underneath the thin silk and to focus on making her comfortable. He knew what would happen if he scared her off again.

He walked over to her side of the bed, placed the massage oil and manual on her bedside table and held out the blindfold. "Okay, put it on me."

"Why do I have to do it?"

"So you know I'm not cheating, Mistress."

"Okay, okay, let's see." Hermione had to kneel on the bed to reach him. He stood right at the edge so their torsos were practically touching. She gently reached up and place the blindfold over his eyes, lightly touching the edges to make sure there was no way he could see out of it.

"So you can't see anything, right?"

"Not a thing."

"And you promise not to take it off?"

"I promise I won't remove myself. _You_ can be the one to remove it at the end Mistre-"

"Stop that. This is weird enough. Okay, I'm going to lay down and put the blanket on."

Even though he had the blindfold, Hermione still turned away when she slipped her robe off. Then she laid down and put the blanket on top as best she could. Then she said "Ready."

"Alright, I'm just going to reach out and feel where you are, okay?"

Hermione nodded.

"Um, Granger?"

"Oh right, you can't see me. Yeah that's fine."

Thank Merlin he couldn't see how flushed she was from embarrassment. She didn't know what she expected Dracos' hands to feel like but she was surprised when they came down very gently over the blanket. She took a sharp breath in. He found the edge and slowly reached under, his hands, rough from the past few years on the run, skimmed from the top of her shoulders down to her hips. Then his hands were gone and she felt cold and exposed again. She released the breath she had been holding making a small sigh of frustration.

Draco had noticed and chuckled saying "I'm just getting some oil, Granger."

"I'm just tired, maybe this was a bad idea." She said feeling too self-aware. She was about to lift herself up when Draco placed his hands firmly back on her shoulders.

"Just give me two minutes, and if you hate it, we can stop, okay?"

Hermione let out another frustrated breath but laid back down. "Fine. Two minutes."

Draco got to work and in less than a minute, Hermione forgot about wanting to stop and allowed herself to relax. She really was tired, and Draco seemed to be an expert masseuse, so she let her mind drift.

Draco had learned how to give a pretty amazing massage years ago, it was part of what helped him gain his reputation in school. Women always fell for massages. Of course, he usually wasn't blindfolded, and the woman wasn't a stuck-up know-it-all who hated him. But he supposed things could be worse for him.

He moved his hands along her back. He could feel many bumps and ridges. "How big was this scar?" He wondered. It seemed to cover most of her back with long strokes and swirls. He couldn't think what would have caused those kind of marks. Now with the oil, he was putting more pressure and could feel all the knots and tight spots. He knew he had found a particularly annoying knot when she made a small noise of discomfort and wiggle her hips. He would then quietly reassure her, and tell her he needed to work on it to release it.

But his favourite sound was the quiet moan she would give when he did something that felt good. Gods, what he wouldn't give to hear her moan louder and preferably followed by his name. He worked down from her shoulders to her lower back. The scar seemed to end somewhere in the middle of her back, below was pure soft skin, even though he probably didn't have to, he kept going with his massage and she kept rewarding him with those small moans. He felt the curve of her waist and down to her hips. All he could think about was his desire to go lower, all the contact with her, the scent of the massage oil and he could feel himself starting to get hard. So he abruptly stopped, pulling his hands from the blanket and tried thinking about Professor Flitwick in a bikini. That solved the problem.

Hermione was torn from her bliss when Draco moved his hands away and she felt cold air on her back.

"How was that?" He asked.

"It was uhm… good. Actually." She said sitting up and putting her robe back on.

"Surprised?" He said with his classic Malfoy smirk, but still blindfolded.

"A bit. Aren't you going to take that thing off?"

"No. I promised you that I wouldn't take it off myself."

"Oh right." She reached up to take off the blindfold. It was a small gesture and she knew it was silly she appreciated that he was trying to make her feel comfortable and in control.

This time when she reached up, their chests touched and he could feel her hard nipples beneath the thin silk brush up and down his chest. As soon as she took the blindfold off he took a step back and turned away from her so she wouldn't notice the bulge forming in his pants. "You have a lot of tense areas, Granger. If I'm going to help, I'll have to do this regularly."

"If you're okay with that, then I guess I'm okay with it." Hermione said, playing with the blindfold in her hands. She was feeling very relaxed, but very awkward at the same time, and slightly embarrassed that she couldn't seem to put together normal sounding sentences. "I'm going to find my top" She got off the bed, leaving the blindfold behind.

"Okay then." He turned back around after having regain control of himself. "I'll just leave these here" he said placing the blindfold, oil and the manual open to the page with the default settings in her bedside table drawer, in the hope that she would stumble upon the manual herself. For now it was all he could do, so he went back to his room.

Hermione found her shirt and climbed back into bed. She thought about how things had changed since the first day she brought Draco into her home, how tense she was. And now she was trusting him to help her network and laying shirtless in front of him (blindfold or not, it was still a huge step for Hermione). She laid back and of course, began to worry about her next steps. Step one, telling Ron and Harry about Draco. Step two, preparing for Lucidas party.


	7. Chapter 7 - The Boys Find Out

Thank you everyone for reading and for the helpful comments.

I have not abandoned this, there is a plan. But I started a new job and work has been insane lately and I haven't had time to write.

I'm hoping to get a few chapters in over Christmas. For now, here is the next.

* * *

Monday morning, was a lovely sunny day and Draco was in the kitchen enjoying his morning coffee. Hermione swept into the kitchen grabbed her muggle coffee mug, quickly filled it with coffee and was flooing off to work with only a quiet rushed "Good morning." to Draco.

Draco was surprised as Hermione usually came downstairs still in her pajamas looking for breakfast. He wondered what her rush was this morning.

In truth, Hermione was avoiding Draco. After her conversation with Ginny, she had decided that she had to tell Harry and Ron about him and she knew that if she told Draco, he would try to talk her out of it. So, she barely looked at him as she went off to work.

It was almost noon and Draco had scheduled a typical day for himself in the Granger household. Her extensive library allowed him to study practically any topic he would have taken at Hogwarts, excluding divination of course. He had sat down on the couch with a book on advanced potions, when the floo alarm went off.

He didn't have time to duck behind the couch before he was face to face with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. As the two men approached, Draco backed around the couch until he hit the living room wall.

They were just as he remembered at Hogwarts. Maybe a bit taller and muscular but still all emotion and no thought. Ron was turning the same shade of red as his hair as he dove after Draco, landing a punch across his jaw. Draco slid down the wall, putting up his hands to protect himself. Ron was muttering about how he was going to kill him.

Never in a million years, did he think that he, Draco Malfoy would be on the floor, wearing a collar, hands up in front of Potter and Weasley. Harry had his wand pointed directly at Dracos head and Ron was standing over him, poised to throw another punch, when the floo alarm went off again.

"Seriously Harry?" A shrill and furious voice asked.

"Hermione…" Harry started.

"Locking me in the office. Did you really think that would hold me all day?"

"Just long enough to take this slimy git to Azkaban!" Ron said angrily, putting his hand around Dracos' neck and hauling him up off the floor.

"Well clearly you underestimated me, as usual. I'm here now and you are not to lay a hand on him Ronald!"

Both Harry and Ron turned to face Hermione, Ron letting go of Draco, but still not moving away from him. As they looked at one another, they all realized that this was a moment they never thought would happen. Hermione Granger was choosing Draco Malfoy over her friendship with the Golden Trio.

"Hermione," Harry began, taking a breath, "I know you want to get over what happened to you. But buying Malfoy? Taking out your revenge on him won't make you feel better. I promise. We know you 'Mione. Let us take him in, where he can be properly questioned." He looked at her with pleading eyes.

"You know me? Then you know this isn't about revenge. I'm rehabilitating him."

Both men looked at her stunned. They couldn't believe she was serious.

"If I can rehabilitate a prat like him, then maybe you'll finally see that this program needs to be rethought. If I can…"

"Look Hermione." Harry said with a sigh "You've always tried to take in wounded animals, but Malfoy isn't one of them. He's pure evil, dangerous and should be locked up. You just don't have the stomach to make these tough calls."

"I don't have the stomach? You half-wits would be dead a hundred times over if I didn't make the touch calls."

"Hermione, I don't want to fight with you, but I need to take him in."

"What right do you have?"

"You're my friend. And since you won't see reason, maybe you could do this as a favour to me. I've been keeping it quiet, but I think you should know, I'm running for minister of magic. Bringing in Malfoy would be a huge boost to my ratings Hermione."

"Get out." Hermione said darkly, cutting him off.

Hermione was too furious for words. How dare he barge in here and arrest him? How could he take this away from her? Not to mention, Harry knew as well as anyone what would happen if Draco Malfoy was taken to Azkhaban. He wouldn't survive the week. She tried to ignore the fact that she suddenly seemed to care about what happened to her nemisis from school.

"Hermione…" Ron started, finally moving away from Draco and towards her.

"No." She said putting her hands up to keep them back. "You have no right to come in here like this. And I will not have you using people under my protection for your political gain. Now get out!"

Harry and Ron nodded and quietly left. As the made their way to the fireplace, Harry turned back as if to say something to Hermione. But his words were lost in his throat. Although tensions at work had been high, they all still believed that on some level, they were still bestfriends. After that morning, they felt they were strangers to one another.

Once Harry and Ron left, Draco felt that he should say something to Hermione, but he had no idea where to start. He also didn't get the chance as she said abruptly, "I'm going out and probably won't be home for dinner." She then turned on her heel, and flooed back out of the house, leaving Draco alone to consider how he almost got arrested, and how the Gryffindor princess once again had protected him.

* * *

Hermione flooed directly to Ginny's. With tears in her eyes, she recounted the events of earlier that day. And how she was sure that this was the real end to her friendship with the boys.

Ginny would usually have some sort of advice, or kind words to calm Hermione, but tonight she had none. Harry and Rons' behaviour had grown more and more extreme but today showed that they really had no regard for Hermione and she was tired of seeing her hurt by them again and again.

Having no other helpful advice, Ginny fell back on her default plan. Going out for drinks. She invited Adrian Dolmargate, another auror from the office and probably the person closest to Hermione aside from Ginny. Adrian was a tall intimidating man with short brown hair and a trimmed beard. Ginny hated the beard saying it made him look much older than them, when the truth was he was only a year older than Hermione.

The three decided to meet at a muggle bar to avoid being disturbed by anyone from the wizarding world. Starting with two round of shots, Hermione began recounting all the craziness of the past few weeks to Adrian, who listened intently throughout the story.

After a few drinks and many raised eyebrows from Adrian, Hermione finished her story. Including telling him about her bid for minister of magic. Adrian then turned to Ginny asking her to confirm if what he had just heard was actually true. He had so many questions that he wanted to ask, but he just chose one.

"So, Ron Weasley had Draco Malfoy by the neck, you kick Ron and Harry out, and then you just leave Draco there alone?"

Hermione put down her drink, eyes wide with realization.

"Oh my God! I just left him there. I didn't even check to see if he was ok. The poor thing!"

"I don't think I would ever consider Draco Malfoy a "poor thing"." replied Ginny, who was unable to hold in her contempt after a few drinks.

"But he was so scared. And he doesn't have anyone to talk to. He hasn't seen a friendly face in months, maybe even longer."

They continued to talk to for a few minutes but it was clear that Hermione felt she should get home to check on Malfoy. So, Adrian suggested that he, being the only one of the three of them still sober enough to apparate safely, take the ladies home.

They went first to Ginny's and then to Hermione's. Adrian walked Hermione to her door, and when they reached it, he paused. Hermione, still holding on to his arm, looked up at him expectantly.

"Hermione," he sighed "are you sure about this? You're probably the most capable witch I know and you can do anything you set your mind to. But you're important to me. Promise me you'll be careful around him."

"Don't worry about me Adrian. I put in plenty of safeguards should he attack me. Ok? Goodnight!"

And with that Hermione released him arm and went inside.

"That's not what I meant." Adrian muttered before turning to go home.

* * *

By now it was the early hours of the morning, so Hermione crept inside as quietly as any slightly drunk person can and made her way upstairs. She saw that Draco's bedroom door was shut so she decided to talk to him tomorrow.

She clumsily got ready for bed, putting on her shorts, but struggling with the shirt. In the end she tossed to shirt aside with frustration and just wrapped her robe around her. She settled into bed and reached over to her nightstand for a book. She would just read a few lines to get her to sleep.

The book she found first, was the manual that Draco had left for her to find. Open to the page about the default settings of the collar. Frowning, she decided to stick with it, she figured she would be asleep soon enough.

Aids in Submission, the chapter title read.

The collar can be charmed to require the wearer to ask permission for certain things to ease their transition into servitude. By default this includes sexual release as this has been found to be the most effective method to tame...

Suddenly Hermione was very awake. She couldn't believe it, in all her years of being a cautious bookworm, she chose now to skip reading the manual? How could she not have known? And why hasn't he said anything? Well that was really a stupid question, Draco Malfoy coming to Hermione Granger to talk about orgasms, clearly that would never happen. She frantically began looking for the instructions to change the settings.

Meanwhile, all of Hermione's banging about when she was getting changed for bed had awoken Draco. He was still feeling upset and confused about the events earlier that day. He told himself he wanted someone to yell at and that he blamed her for all of this happening, for almost getting him arrested, possibly even killed. In truth, he just didn't want to be alone. However, the scene he discovered when he sauntered into her bedroom, was not what he had expected.

Hermione was sitting on the bed cross-legged, one hand in her hair, the other furiously flipping through a book. She looked exactly like the Hermione he remembered from Hogwarts, nose stuck in a book. After a moment, she looked up at him, clearly concerned.

"Is this true?" she asked in a panic

"Is what true Granger?" he drawled back.

"This... this!" she said gesturing to the book.

Draco came and sat on the edge of the bed to get a better look at the book, which he now recognized.

"Ah, that. Well, then... yes, it's um, true."

This conversation had taken an awkward turn that Draco was not prepared for. Any plans he had when entering Hermione's bedroom quickly evaporated.

"Ok, well can't I just say a blanket statement, like you always have permission?"

"It doesn't look like it. Further on in the chapter it says you have to be within close proximity and there "in the moment""

"Argh, ok here's how to reverse it. Gods this looks complicated. I'll need to study this. These really are poorly designed contraptions, I mean these charms are way more complicated then they need to be, If they just reworked this part here, and then made it so… "

"Granger!" Malfoy yelled to snap her out of it. "Can you fix it?"

"Umm... not tonight. I'm sorry Malfoy."

She looked up at Draco. He was still sitting on the bed, clearly not wanting to leave her room just yet. He probably didn't want to be alone right now and neither did she.

"What if, you know, just for tonight…"

"Just for tonight, what?"

"Well what if I was right there? So, you could, you know. Just this once."

"Okay Granger, one dinner party and a massage and now you want a one-man full-frontal show? You really have gone off the deep end!"

Hermione got up on her knees and faced him. He could see that her robe was untied, showing just a sliver of her chest and stomach.

"Maybe... It would be less awkward if I did it?"

She kept eye contact with him as she moved her hand cautiously to his boxer shorts.

"You can say no, you know. Are you sure you're OK with this?"

The typically quick tongued Draco Malfoy stared back at her in disbelief. It was like one of his fantasies from the past week coming true. All he could come up with as a response was "Yeah".

He looked back into her amber eyes and saw her desire in them. He could feel himself growing hard as her hand moved into his shorts. He wanted to throw her on the bed and take her in every position possible, but he knew that it would be too much for her and he would risk getting thrown out. So, he used all of his concentration to stay still.

Hermione had already released him from his shorts and was moving her hand slowly along his shaft. She applied a little more pressure and watched him close his eyes, tilting his head back a bit letting out a quiet moan.

It had been a long time since she had done anything intimate with a man, and the voice in her head that usually told her to be careful, was now screaming at her that this was her enemy. That she was dangerously close to wanting to go further with someone she had despised for years. It was dampened however, not just by the alcohol, but for the pure want to be with someone, to be touched, to be known.

She noticed he made no move to touch her and grew concerned. She glanced at his hands and saw he was clenching them to his thighs.

"It's OK to touch me, you know" she said to him softly.

Draco looked at her skeptically. But slowly moved his hands to the opening of her robe. He knew he wouldn't be able to take it off her, but he prayed to Salazaar that she would let him open it. He opened her robe, releasing her breasts. He had imagined them in his fantasy, but nothing compared to seeing the real thing.

Without thinking, he snaked one hand around her waist and dipped his head down placing short desperate kisses down her neck. Quickly moving down toward her breasts and nipping lightly one of her perky nipples. Immediately, Hermione froze. "Dammit", he thought to himself, "Why did I have to get carried away? She's going to toss me out again". He released her, closed his eyes and waited to be thrown out.

"It's OK Malfoy, you just surprised me. I'll let you know if you do anything I'm not comfortable with."

He looked up at her surprised. And she could see his blue eyes dark with lust. She shimmied closer to him and readjusted her hold on his member and continued stroking faster and harder than before. He responded with a low growl as he moved to the other breast and resumed his assault.

Her original thought was that this was all about him. But his expert tongue, finding all of her sensitive spots on her neck and breasts was making her wetter by the minute. He was so close that when she breathed in, all she could smell was him and lust and desire in the air. She was losing focus and quickly getting lost in the sensations.

It had been a long time since Draco had felt release and he would have sworn up and down that her hands felt more amazing that anyone else's had before. He wasn't going to last long. He could feel the need for release building, so he kissed his way up to her ear. He tightened his grip on her and gave a breathy, "Hermione".

"You have my permission" she whispered back and he came into her hand.

Neither moved for a few moments. Hermione eventually broke the silence by grabbing her wand and using a quick scourgify to clean them both. She peeled herself away from Draco and tied her robe up properly as she turned away from him.

She cleared her throat, "Ahem, um, goodnight Malfoy. I'll sort this out tomorrow alright?"

Draco was left speechless, still processing what had just transpired. He simply got up, pulling up his shorts and left the room. He came in to let off steam about the day, and he guessed it was mission accomplished, just not as he had planned.

He laughed quietly to himself as he told himself he was just using her, that this was another step towards being able to manipulate her. He chose to ignore the voice insisting that really, he had wanted to see her, to find comfort with her. That he felt a real spark. But looking down at the cuffs on his wrists he was reminded of his current situation. He grimaced and insisted to himself that it was all part of his plan to escape.

* * *

The next morning, Draco was downstairs in the kitchen preparing breakfast as he usually did, when a very disheveled looking Hermione came down the stairs. She was still in her pajamas, hair a frizzy nightmare, with a determined look in her eyes and wand in hand.

"Malfoy" she said with a raspy dark voice, gesturing for him to come to her.

He put down the coffee pot and approached her cautiously.

His mind was racing. She didn't look pleased. He knew last night was a bad idea, it was obvious she had had a few drinks, but it's not like he took advantage of her. She had grabbed him! He stopped a couple of feet away from her.

She looked up at him and said, "Get on your knees, Malfoy." He hesitated. She pointed her want at his head. "Now."

Reluctantly he went down to his knees "Look Granger," he started. "If this is about last night..."

"Of course it's about last night! Now stop talking" she siad impatiently

"Hey I didn't do anything – "

"I said stop talking!"

Finally, he fell silent. Draco looked at the ground, resigning himself to the fact that he was about to be hexed six ways to Sunday. Internally Hermione was laughing. She was tired and when she came downstairs and saw the worried look on Draco's face, she couldn't help but keep it going.

Now that he was finally quiet, she closed her eyes and remembered the incantation. It had taken most of the night, but she had figured out how to change the restrictions on the collar. After a few minutes of wand waving, she determined she had likely made the changes she wanted.

"Done!" she said brightly when she had finished.

Draco looked up at her. "Seriously Granger? You could have just explained what you were doing!" He got up dusting off his pants, looking indignant.

"I could have, I just chose not to. It's not every day you get to see Draco Malfoy squirm" She said with a smirk.

She then explained that there were no more barbaric behavioural restrictions and that he would be able to floo out of the house, provided he was going to her location.

As they both sat down to breakfast, a beautiful snow-white owl glided in through the window. Hermione removed the white envelope from its leg and opened the letter. In intricate gold writing, Hermione found an invitation to Lucida Persode's next gathering.

"Well Malfoy, are you ready to be reintroduced to high society?"


End file.
